Would it be very undude of me to....

[ispamforfood]

Declare myself Arch Dude of the New England states?   
I think it'd be good to have some regional spokes-dudes, u know?

[DigitalBuddha]

Declare myself Arch Dude of the New England states?   
I think it'd be good to have some regional spokes-dudes, u know?

What do you need that for, dude?

[Rev. Ed C]

Although it wouldn't be considered a hostile takeover, it would smack of an overactive ego, perhaps

Dare I say it might be 'borderline' undude?

Perhaps see if you can get yourself down as a write-in on a ballot

[meekon5]

Declare myself Arch Dude of the New England states?  
I think it'd be good to have some regional spokes-dudes, u know?

Spokes Dude yes. All in you opinion of course.

Arch Dude, well considering we are an eclectic mono level disorganisation of individuals I don't see why you just saying stuff represents any one of us.

and I can only agree with Ed:

Although it wouldn't be considered a hostile takeover, it would smack of an overactive ego, perhaps

Dare I say it might be 'borderline' undude?

I thought we were an anarcho-syndicalist commune.
Supreme executive power derives from a mandate from the masses, not from some farcical aquatic ceremony.
I certainly didn't vote for you!

[cakebelly]

Well, I ain't gonna tip toe round the tulips: yes, it would be undude. I wouldn't be here if some of us were pomped and puffed-up with titles (said more or less the same thing on The Dudespaper article - comments "And In England Too" the other day). Even in jest such frippery causes confusion and misleads folk about the nature of this here movement; play time is over - in this regard - we need to settle down and just be Dudes. I hear that the Catholics are always looking for chaps - chance of advancement, all meals provided, etc.

Henceforth all self-appointed (or otherwise) titled Dudes will be referred to  - as a courtesy - by their name (if known) and rank: Dude. If I am not privy to the name because the title is blocking the view I will refer to said Dude as Dude Ego (on a good day) or Dude Twat.

The Dudely Lama can stay the Dudely Lama, of course, we need a fall guy  figure-head.  

Just my opinion, of course.

[meekon5]

Personally I thought the title "Grand Old Dude Of York!" suggested more authority than was necessary (sorry to the Grand Old Dude Of York, my opinion of course). Sounded too much like a child wearing a big hat to seem more important.

The Dudely Lama can stay the Dudely Lama, of course, we need a fall guy  figure-head.  

See even the Dudely Lama doesn't claim to be actually in charge of anything.



I still would like to know how Yorkist Dudeists feel about the "Grand Old Dude Of York" calling himself "Grand Old Dude Of York".

[Quaker Dude]

I'd probably call myself "The Carolina Dude" if I wasn't nearly certain there was at least one other personage who could rightfully lay claim to such a title.  

I don't think there's anything wrong with self-appointed nicknames per se...hell, that's all a "politician" is anyway - a guy or gal with no more brains or sensitivity than anyone else (and considerably less, more often than not) who gives him or herself a fancy title, or has a fancy title conferred upon him/her by others, and plays make-believe.  

The big difference is that those people use their make-believe as an outlet for violent, megalomaniacal impulses and an excuse to work out their God complexes on every unwitting sap within marching range.  We just do it for funsies.

[cakebelly]

The thing is, Quaker Dude, it does mean something: subconsciously or otherwise for the receiver a title implies something other/more than just Dude. As I said, even in jest, it is misleading; in much the same way that the forum titles are (IMO) something of an embarrassment (Duddha/Superdude - what-have-you). For the title holder/transmitter it certainly means a top-heavy ego and implies a Dude who doesn't understand what's going on here/ a Dude who does understand what's going on but continues with brandishing a title anyway (in which case they can fuck right off) or is too stupid to understand anything much at all in which case he/she should join the Catholic church.

The reasons you gave for politicians stand for any organisation  - even Dudeism; we are human beings, after all. So, I reiterate, while folk have had their fun wiith it, IMO, it's time to Dude-up and be content with it - it is a hard enough task already. Badges of merit, or titles to honour are out too - such things are corrupted very early on and quite unnecessary.

The argument that "in the great scheme of things such titles don't matter" does not hold oat soda, either. If they didn't matter they wouldn't exist and we wouldn't be having this discussion. As the arch-bishop says to the priest "we are all equal in the eyes of the Lord"; not meaning to go into a pythonesque mode again but "we don't have a Lord". So we must, therefore, be equal in the eyes of each other.

It's pretty much the same argument (in parts) as the Dude/Dudette kerfuffle; well now we have equal billing as Dudes in name it's time for equal billing in rank (imagined or otherwise).

Does this smack too much of Socialism  (or something) for American Dudes to feel comfortable with?  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YjjuBy9gKlM

[Rev. Ed C]

Hmm, now, I hate to keep referring back to my own articles, but, well, I can't be bothered to write anything new

http://dudespaper.com/levelling-in-pursuit-of-the-spiritual-bungalow.html/

There is a section in here, approved by said scape goat, errr, I mean... The Dudely Lama (he even added in a mugshot of himself), on what Levelling means within Dudeism.  So, if you want something that's close to an official line on the equality of Dudeism, look no further.

In fact, let me simply copy/paste in the section in case you're not inclined to search through the article for it...

So what does this concept mean to us? No Dude rises above another, man. You may see some people have titles, like The Dudely Lama, and The Archdudeship or such ?n? such, and think, hey, those guys are ranked and shit, why not me? Well, those are just handles, man, not marks of authority figures who are gonna boss you about. They have the honor of earning those names through righteous deed and state of being (and being the first to register the name on the website account creation database), but they?re not out to lord it up, far fucking from it. Everybody else gets at the very least the honor of being dubbed a reverend around here, by personal choice, because we?re all equals.

This isn?t animal farm we?re living in here, man, we?ve achieved a social and gender equality by coining the term dude for everyone. The everyman is the everydude! You pick your handle and we?ll respect it. You do the deed you?ll earn a status mark from the Dudely Lama, who?s not so much at the top as in a privileged corner, by my reckoning. I don?t think anyone?s looking to form some sort of authority pyramid around here, just the odd chain of bureaucracy that keeps the system working and puts the organization into organized religion. We?re the sorts to respect a man for what he does, not what it says next to his name on the office phone list.

As Dudeists we all live in our own neighboring bungalows (spiritually speaking). The community is one big fucking public residence and our doors are always open to one another, and those not meaning any specific form of harm. We?re not elitist or exclusionist, we don?t lock our hilltop mansions and erect security fences plastered with ?beware of the dog?, ?no hawkers? and ?trespassers will be fucked up!!? signs. If you don?t come a-stresspassin?, you?re welcome in our home (still spiritually speaking, we lock private residences for a reason).

And you can quote me on that

[Banjo Dude]

'Sides, bro, you can't be the Archdude of NE; I is. 

Heh, no, just kidding, I'm actually the Archduke of Earl of Soup and Sandwich. With a large Coke.  And the soup?  Clam chowdah.  And not that red crap they like in New York.


On a more serious note, I actually am elitist, but I'm workin' on it.  Honest.
But I figure it's OK, because it's mostly centered on New England Clam Chowder being better than Manhattan Clam Chowder.

[forumdude]

Yeah, these titles don't really mean anything officially - we hand them out to people who go above and beyond the call of dudey in helping to promote Dudeism. But they're just for fun and they're not permanent. We're going to be setting up a system where people can organize a local parish, and in that case they might need special titles just to acknowledge that they've got a flock, but then again the flocks will probably be egalitarian and non-hierarchical, so maybe the "leader" of the congregation could be a rotating position or something.

We'd prefer if people didn't make up their own titles just because it might cause confusion and lead non-dudeists to assume you have some special authority or something. But we're not going to be hard ons about it.

Despite the Dudeist propensity towards "leveling" I think that we can probably all get on board with some people having titles, right? I mean for instance Dwayne Eutsey having the title Arch Dudeship is because he's done more than anyone else over the years to further the dude movement, and Kristian Lewin has also done a lot so why not have him be the Grand Old Dude of York? We can have other "leaders" in York. He's not looking for a handout or trying to scam anyone here. Even the position of Dudely Lama is only temporary - I might step down at some point once I can find a suitable replacement. Doesn't really mean anything other than just a sort of ironic cosmic joke. Helps to take some of the wind out of religious divine right and fawning obsequiousness to have "leaders" with such funny names, doesn't it?

[cckeiser]

How about the different dude titles under our names on the board for how many posts we made? Can we get rid of all the Superdudes and Duddhas and just call everyone dude after 10 posts?
I believe cakebelly asked about that some time ago, but I didn't find where it could be changed.

[forumdude]

Done. Below 10 posts is an "Amateur", above is a Dude. Are you happy you crazy fuck? Ha ha. Kidding. I dig your style. Superdude sounds pretty undude indeed.

[Rev. Ed C]

Gah, all my hard work to earn a title based on how much crap I post!  Hmm, better trim it back to just the valid posts again, me thinks

[meekon5]

I was just posting shite like a bastard in an attempt to beat DB's stats (yeh chance would be a fine thing, I'm still not one hundred percent sure he's not actually a Big Lebowski themed spam bot).

I wasn't particularly working on the title.